from The Body in Pain, by Elaine Scarry

‘To wit­ness the moment when pain caus­es a rever­sion to the pre-lan­guage of cries and groans is to wit­ness the destruc­tion of lan­guage; but con­verse­ly, to be present when a per­son moves up out of that pre-lan­guage and projects the facts of sen­tience into speech is almost to have been per­mit­ted to be present at the birth of lan­guage itself.”